Feb. 21, 2009
Box Score
DAVIDSON, N.C. - The Leopards began their 2009 baseball season with a bang, taking both games of a season-opening doubleheader in Davidson. Lafayette won a 2-1 decision against Ohio in the day's first game and capped off the afternoon with a 10-6 win over host Davidson.
Senior shortstop Daniel Bierce led the Lafayette offense with five hits, including a two-run home run against Davidson, and added three RBI. Sophomore righty Zach Fritz tossed 6.2 shutout innings against Ohio and Corey Shea threw four innings of one-run relief in the Leopards' second victory.
Lafayette (2-0) came out on top of a 2-1 pitchers' duel with Ohio to kickoff the day. Fritz scattered just six hits over his six-plus innings of work and the Leopards pushed across the eventual game-winning run in the bottom of the eighth inning when singled home freshman Bobby Fargnoli.
Rookie Ethan Perro picked up the win in relief as he combined with fellow relievers Jack Rems and Brian Mostek to allow just one run in 2.1 innings. Mostek was credited with the save with a perfect ninth inning.
Lafayette jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the fourth when Bierce led off with a single to left field and came around to score on a sacrifice bunt by Justin Shepherd.
Fritz kept the Bobcats off the scoreboard and gave way to Rems with two outs in the seventh inning. Rems got the innings' final out but a Hayden Johnston homer with one out in the eighth knotted the game at one before Bierce came through in the bottom half of the inning as Lafayette held on for the win.
Bierce racked up three more hits in the win over Davidson, including the team's first home run of the season. First baseman Chris Luick added two hits and two RBIs as the Leopards finished with 14 hits in the game.
Lafayette jumped out to an early 1-0 with a run in the top of the first. Leadoff hitter Rob Froio knocked a single to center and came around to score on Bierce's sac fly to centerfield. Davidson responded with three runs on three hits, including two RBI doubles, in its half of the inning.
The lead switched hands again in the second inning when the Leopards scored three runs of their own. Luick came through with a RBI single and A.J. Pisarri plated Luick and Ian McCutcheon with his one-out single.
The Wildcats knotted the game at four in the bottom of the fourth on a Zach Kayne single but Lafayette regained the lead, this time for good, in the top of the fifth inning with two runs. The Leopards opened with back-to-back doubles by Bierce and Jeff Butler to break the tie. Junior Matt Hall came around to score the inning's second run on a wild pitch to give his team the two-run lead (6-4).
Shea relieved Hanna in the sixth inning and the Leopards tacked on two more runs in their half of the seventh. McCutcheon hit a two-out double to centerfield and Luick followed with a RBI triple. Another RBI triple, this time off the bat of Weiss, made the score 8-4.
Two Davidson runs in the seventh inning, only one of which was earned, made it an 8-6 ball game but Bierce's two-run homer padded Lafayette's lead to four (10-6) and secured the win.
Shea pitched the final four innings and gave up just the two seventh-inning runs and four hits.
The Leopards wrap-up their weekend tomorrow with a 1 p.m. game against Davidson.
Postgame Notes:
- Lafayette has now won three straight over Davidson and improve to 6-3 all-time against the Wildcats.
- Lafayette head coach Joe Kinney now has 189 career wins and will go for number 190 tomorrow. He also improved to 6-4 in season openers.
- The Leopards' faced Ohio for the first time in program history. The Wildcats were picked to finish second in Mid-American Conference Preseason Poll.
